You can make this curry with any combination of vegetables that you desire, but great options are baby corn, carrots, courgettes, mushrooms, broccoli, and red pepper.

The inclusion of fresh basil is one of my favourite parts of this recipe, and really helps to create the distinctive and delicious flavour of the dish. It also doesn’t hurt that basil is bursting with goodness, such as vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, manganese, copper, and calcium!

Ingredients:

25g green curry paste

250ml coconut milk

50ml vegetable stock

10ml soy sauce

3g kaffir lime leaves

5g coconut nectar

20g eggplant

15g fresh basil leaves

5g red chilli

Small bowl of mixed vegetables

Method:

Heat the coconut milk in a large pan for a few minutes before adding the green curry paste. Stir well.

Oil your wok and add your selection of vegetables. Heat for a few moments and then coat with the curry paste sauce. Add vegetable stock, kaffir lime leaves, soy sauce and coconut nectar to the wok and bring to the boil before adding the eggplant. Add the fresh basil leaves with the chilli and then serve.

Wellness for Women

If you have seen my wellness for women membership site – Truly Julie – then you will know that I am on a mission to inspire and motivate women to become healthier and happier – and I would love it if you would join me on this journey as we keep moving through 2018!

If your kids are anything like mine, then there’s a good chance that pizza is one of their favourite dishes. The problem with a lot of store bought pizzas is that they can be high in fat, high in calories, and also contain additional additives and preservatives that aren’t going to do your health any favours!

My recipe for vegan pizza is a simple way to create a fresh, healthy pizza that the kids will still love – all four of mine certainly do!

If you are interested in receiving a downloadable version of this recipe straight to your inbox then enter your email!

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The bases that I recommend are the stone-baked variety from BFree Foods. In case you didn’t catch my last blog post, I’m now a Brand Ambassador for this incredible company,! BFree Foods provide allergen-free foods so that more people can enjoy amazing tasting dishes!

To make two pizzas, you will need the following ingredients:

2 BFree pizza bases

1 red pepper, de-seeded and thinly sliced long-ways

1 yellow pepper, de-seeded and thinly sliced long-ways

10 stalks of tender-stem broccoli

2 handfuls of rocket

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

2 heaped Tbsp of tomato paste

2 white onions, thinly sliced into 1/2 moons

2 tsp of paprika

2 Tbsp of pine nuts

Olive oil

Agave syrup

Begin by pre-heating your oven to 200C and preparing all of your ingredients.

Take the sliced onions and fry at a medium to high heat with a splash of olive oil. Once the onions have begun to soften, which should take around five minutes, you can then add one tablespoon of agave syrup. This will allow the onions to caramelise, so leave them to do their thing for a further few minutes. After this time, you can remove them from the heat and set aside.

Next, in a food processor, whizz the tinned tomatoes with the tomato paste and one tablespoon of the agave syrup until smooth. Set this aside as you’ll be using it as your red sauce.

Place the red and yellow peppers on a baking sheet and drizzle olive oil over them. Roast in the oven for ten minutes, as they just start to get soft.

Place the broccoli in a shallow pan and cover with 2cm of water. Heat at a medium heat for just five minutes. You can then drain and remove from the heat.

Now it’s time to create your pizza!

Slather the BFree pizza base with your red sauce, top with the caramelised onions, red and yellow peppers, and the broccoli. Each pizza should then get a tablespoon of pine nuts and a sprinkle of paprika!

Cook for 10 minutes (pine nuts will be perfectly toasted) and once out of the oven, top each pizza with a handful of rocket. Enjoy!

Don’t forget to check out the BFree Foods website for these pizza bases, as well as to see the other amazing foods that they have in their range. You can also like their Facebook page to stay up to date with what they’re up to!

I have a big announcement to share here on my blog! As you probably know, healthy eating is one of my biggest passions, and this is a concept that I am always excited to share with other people. This is something that I am now eager to do within my role as Brand Ambassador for BFree Foods!

The BFree Foods Story

In case you don’t know much about this incredible company, here is why I decided to become their Brand Ambassador.

BFree Foods was created in order to make delicious, healthy foods much more easily available. Absolutely all of their products are allergen free, which means if you have an allergy or sensitivity to a particular food, then you can consume anything from the BFree Foods range without worrying!

Although the focus of the BFree Foods range is wheat-free and gluten-free foods, their products are additionally free from soya, dairy, eggs and nuts!

As well as providing allergen free choices, BFree Foods strive to create healthy options. Their ambition with doing so is to make it easier for you to get the nutrients you need whilst also avoiding the ingredients you don’t want!

Shop Online

If you head to the BFree Food online store now then you’ll be able to see for yourself the exciting range of foods available. You can also check out their recipe section for some great suggestions on how to best enjoy their products.

Also, if you have any questions about allergen free eating then feel free to leave a question in the comments and I’ll get back to you!

My Three Leafy Green Pesto recipe is something that you can easily throw together yourself in less than ten minutes from start to finish! It is also bursting with nutrients, meaning you can use it as your delicious go-to dip on those days when you feel you need an extra burst of goodness! Personally, I love making it for dinner parties! Continue reading Three Leafy Green Pesto

In recent years there has been an emergence of research that has shown just how important the health of the gut is! When your digestive system isn’t doing its thing, all other areas of your health can soon become compromised. Continue reading Gut Health and Your Diet

There are many amazing foods that you can add to your meals in order to enhance the flavour and improve the nutritional value. Ginger is one such thing that is not only loved for its taste, but also for its health boosting properties for both your body and brain.

Whether you use ground ginger or purchase the root and chop, grate or slice it yourself, you will be able to enjoy the many health advantages.

One of the most appreciated uses of ginger is to tackle feelings of nausea, especially those brought on by morning sickness. It is also believed to be effective in reducing vomiting for post-surgery patients and is used regularly by those undergoing chemotherapy.

Ginger can be effective in alleviating muscle pain and soreness following exercise due to its anti-inflammatory properties. Although the effects are not immediate, it will contribute to lowered levels of pain and soreness when used day to day. The anti-inflammatory properties of ginger can also help to relieve the impact of osteoarthritis.

Consuming ginger regularly is thought to lower cholesterol levels, which is good news for the health of your heart. High levels of cholesterol can contribute to the onset of heart disease and it is possible to help limit your risk by taking control of your diet!

Now that you know some of the great advantages of including ginger in your diet, let’s take a look at some easy and delicious ways that you can include it in your diet.

Drinking ginger tea is a simple way to enjoy it. You can either buy ready made tea, or you can cut up a chunk of ginger and pour hot water over it. For extra flavour and nutrition you can include a dash of lemon juice.

Adding chunks of ginger to soup is also easy to do and you can use fresh or powdered for similar benefits. If you are going to blend your soup before you eat it then it is effortless to just include large pieces of fresh ginger as it will get blitzed anyway!

Ginger can also be used in moderation in baking and can give an interesting twist to many dishes. Always be sure to follow the recipe when you are using ginger so that you do not overwhelm your dish with this flavour.

If you have seen my new wellness for women membership site – Truly Julie – then you will know that I am on a mission to inspire and motivate women to become healthier and happier – and I would love it if you would join me on this journey as we keep moving through 2017!

This ice cream recipe is incredibly simple to make and will literally take you five minutes from start to finish (excluding the freezing of the bananas obviously)! I always like to have a stash of frozen bananas in my freezer so whenever the mood strikes – or one of my children asks – I can quickly whip up a batch of healthy ice cream.

Using raw cacao in ice cream is such an amazing way to make your dessert super healthy. Cacao beans come from the cacao tree, which is native to Mexico and Central America. Raw cacao generally has a nutty taste but can be quite bitter. Cacao beans are absolutely bursting with antioxidants, which as we know are essential in the fight against free radicals in the body. Cacao beans also contain a happy dose of iron, calcium and magnesium. The health benefits of consuming raw cacao regularly range from alleviating depression, lowering blood pressure and improving circulation.

Including a cup of strawberries in your ice cream recipe not only gives this dish a beautiful colour and luxurious flavour, but it also brings a wealth of nutrients to the dish. Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C, as well as folate and fibre. Similarly to raw cacao, strawberries are bursting with antioxidants. Strawberries also contain an abundance of potassium. Potassium is essential for many functions in the body, not least of all balancing your electrolytes. Potassium also helps the muscles to function properly and works to keep your blood pressure at an optimum level by combatting the presence of sodium in the body. Just one serving of strawberries is enough to provide a daily dose of potassium – so my ice cream is the perfect answer!

To make enough for two people to pile their bowls high you will need the following ingredients:

All you have to do is place the frozen bananas in your blender with the almond milk and then blitz until creamy. You can then add in the rest of the ingredients and blitz again for a few moments. Serve into two bowls and enjoy!

You can find a raspberry variation of this delicious recipe on my soon to be released second course on The Flexi Foodie Academy!

I am always super excited to find new products that make it easier to get the nutrients my body needs without all the time consuming preparation of always eating fresh! The Super Elixir Alkalising Greens by Welleco is one such product that I’ve recently discovered and now I can not get enough of it! I aim to include a dose in diet every day and as well as helping to keep me healthy, it also brings a dose of flavour when used in smoothies and other basic recipes.

The Super Elixir Alkalising Greens by Welleco is an all-in-one plant-based daily supplement that has been developed by leading nutritional doctors around the world. During the creation of this supplement, these doctors use only premium, bio-available nutrients from whole foods! What does this mean exactly? Well, bio-available nutrients are those that are alive, intact and absorbable! This means that you are getting all of the good stuff with none of the synthetic nasties!

By using this incredible supplement every day you can expect your overall nutrition to improve and the function of your immune system to become better also! Furthermore, you will notice that your energy levels are much more consistent and that your hair, nails and skin will all have a healthy glow.

One of the things I love most about this supplement is that it is totally vegan and totally gluten-free, which means practically anyone and everyone can use it and benefit from it!

When you consume The Super Elixir Alkalising Greens by Welleco your body will also have the advantage of having the help it needs to keep within a healthy alkaline range. Your body will also enjoy the wealth of Omega-3 and vitamins and minerals contained within – meaning you will have to pay less attention to getting these things from other sources.

Finding fun ways to include healthy supplements in your diet is a great thing to do and my recipe for The BEST Dressing EVER helps you to do just that!

Humous is an incredibly popular dip that is quite versatile when it comes to what it can be enjoyed with. If you have never made your own humous then you are missing out! Making it yourself at home is super simple and allows you to have complete control over what you put into your recipe. That means no preservatives or added sugar! It also means you can experiment with different flavours and there is no limit as to which foods you can add to the recipe in order to create different flavours and textures.

My Roasted Red Pepper Humous Recipe uses turmeric and paprika, which are two healthy spices, in order to boost the flavour and increase the nutritional value of the dish. They also contribute to the colour of the finished dip.

Turmeric is believed to be one of the most powerful medicinal spices available to us in the present day and has a wide range of uses. The most well-known of these uses are to fight inflammation in the body and to tackle pain. Furthermore, it is also known to be an anticoagulant, meaning it helps the blood to clot as it should. Paprika, on the other hand, is amazing for the optimum health of your skin and hair. This is because of the wealth of vitamins and antioxidants that are present. The presence of beta-carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in the body, is especially anti-ageing and will help to keep your skin looking fresh and young.

To make this delicious humous, you will need the following ingredients:

To get started you must first drizzle the peppers with olive oil and place them in the oven to caramelise. Once the edges start to brown you should remove these edges with a sharp knife. You can then combine the rest of the ingredients in your blender, and once the peppers have finished cooking you should add them in to the blender also and blitz everything together.

Once your humous has reached the desired consistency you can season it with a dash of salt and pepper. Depending on how thick you like your humous you might also want to add an extra drizzle of olive oil.

My stuffed sweet potato recipe is the perfect dish to cook up after a particularly taxing day. This is because it will re-energise your mind and nourish your body due to the combination of super healthy ingredients!

Sweet potatoes are packed full of calcium and potassium, as well as an abundance of vitamins A and C. In fact, the gorgeous colour of this vegetable is due to the presence of beta-carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in the body. The presence of this vitamin in adequate amounts is key to the optimum health of your skin, immune system and your vision.

You may not have come across samphire in your cooking before but there are many great reasons to begin making an effort to include it in your diet. This tasty sea vegetable grows in abundance in marshland and along shorelines. It is perfect for adding to salads but some people prefer to boil it as it can often be quite salty. Samphire has a very exciting nutritional makeup, containing a wealth of vitamins A, B and C, as well as being a good source of folic acid. It is thought to be useful for aiding digestion and boosting mental clarity.

To make this dish for two people, you will need the following ingredients:

To get started making my stuffed sweet potatoes, you will first need to score each potato. Once this is complete you can drizzle them with olive oil and add a dash of salt and pepper. Place the sweet potatoes in the oven and cook them at 200C for 45 minutes. By this time they should become soft on the inside.

While the potatoes are cooking, add the onion, garlic, cumin and turmeric into a pan with a tablespoon of rapeseed oil and a dash of water. You can then cook this pan on a medium heat until the onions are caramelised. At this point you should add the lentils into the pan too and season with salt and pepper.

Once the sweet potatoes are cooked, remove them from the oven and serve with the lentil mix. Top with samphire and enjoy!

Eating a diet that includes foods bursting with nutrients is essential for the optimum health of your body and mind. To learn more about nutrition and healthy eating, head to my online e-learning portal, The Flexi Foodie Academy!